1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and a method for providing search information in real time, and more particularly to a system and a method for optimizing detailed information corresponding to an image photographed by a camera provided in a mobile terminal and/or a sound recorded by a mobile terminal and providing the optimal information to a user.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, mobile terminals are handheld devices for performing wireless communication with a base station and providing wireless communication services to users. Such mobile terminals have rapidly become popular worldwide as a necessity among people of different sexes and ages. A mobile terminal essentially comprises a transceiver for transmitting and receiving voice or image data, a data input/output section and an antenna.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a general folder-type mobile terminal. The terminal has two housings rotatably connected by a hinge. The two housings are hereinafter referred to as a main housing 10 and a folder 20.
The mobile terminal as shown in FIG. 1 comprises a main housing 10, a folder 20, a hinge for rotatably connecting the folder 20 to the main housing 10 in such a manner that the folder 20 can move in a direction toward and away from the main housing 10 and for opening or closing the folder 10, and a lens housing 30 rotatably mounted on the hinge.
The main housing 10 includes a keypad 42 and a microphone 14 on the upper surface 40 thereof. The keypad 42 is provided with a plurality of keys.
The folder 20 includes a speaker 21 and a display device such as an LCD module 22. Also, the lens housing 30 includes a camera lens 31 and a known CCE (charge coupled device) or CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) device (not shown) therein. The lens housing 30 is disposed coaxially in line with the hinge connecting the main housing 10 and the folder 20, thereby being capable of rotating along the axis of the hinge.
When a user of a mobile terminal wishes to obtain information about a particular object or sound, he or she may take a photograph of the object using the camera provided in the mobile terminal or record the sound of the object using the record function offered by the mobile terminal, and then obtain relevant information through the Internet. For example, when the user happens to see a chrysanthemum in bloom along the roadside and wishes to know what the flower is, he or she may photograph the flower using the camera provided in the mobile terminal. Without the knowledge about the photographed flower, the user may search for flowers having a shape similar or identical to the photographed flower through the Internet or the like. If the same flower is found, the user will then learn that the photographed flower is a chrysanthemums. The user may conduct additional searches for a chrysanthemum through the Internet and access a related server to request and obtain more detailed information about chrysanthemum. Finally, the user can learn the exact name and features of the flower found at the roadside.
A solution to a question about any text can be found by the same method.
However, it is a time-consuming process to take a photograph of an object and conduct a search for the object through books or Internet in order to obtain detailed information about the object. When seeing a particular object, people may wonder what the object is and wish to promptly satisfy their curiosity about the object. However, with current technology, they cannot obtain detailed information about the object immediately.
It is also troublesome to conduct searches for similar or identical objects and compare the found objects with that photographed on a one by one basis. Thus, the user may feel it is inconvenient and annoying to obtain detailed information about an object.
Moreover, there is a limitation to confirming with eyes whether any searched object is the same as the photographed object. Therefore, it is very difficult to obtain correct information about an object.
In order to satisfy any curiosity about a sound, the user may hear the sound recorded using the mobile terminal and compare the recorded sound with similar sounds obtained from the Internet. For example, if the user records a mooing sound of a cow, the user will remember the sound and compare it with sound information obtained from the Internet, thereby confirming the source of the recorded mooing sound and the features of the sound source. When a similar sound is found, the user may access a server providing the relevant information and learn that the sound source is a cow. The user may also obtain additional information about cow from the server.
As stated above, however, it is troublesome to undergo multiple processes to detect a particular sound source through Internet searches and obtain additional information about the sound source. In addition, it takes great amounts of time and effort to find the source of a particular sound by comparing the recorded sound with sound information obtained from the Internet or the like.